Sachio Nikaido / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff WriterTokyo stocks closed at a record high for the year Monday, the last trading day of this year, as the yen further weakened in overseas markets.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average rose 112.37 points, or 0.69 percent, from Friday's close to finish at 16,291.31, setting a yearly high for the seventh business day in a row.
Buoyed by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Abenomics economic policy, the Nikkei average rose 52 percent from the beginning of this year, the highest gain in 41 years since it logged 92 percent growth in 1972. This was higher than the 41 percent growth seen during the IT bubble in 1999 and the 42 percent increase recorded during the economic bubble in 1988.
Abe attended a ceremony to mark the last trading day for the year at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. 'Buy my Abenomics next year, too,' Abe said.
The Yomiuri Shimbun
The Nikkei average's increase of 52 percent this year far outstripped the about 23 percent growth in the Dow Jones industrial average and the about 23 percent growth logged by the DAX stock market index in Germany.
The Nikkei average has marked a high for the year on the last trading day for two straight years. It registered a high for the year for four years in a row from 2003 to 2006.
Tokyo stocks maintained upward momentum due to bright prospects for the nation's economy while the weak yen stayed at about ¥105 against the dollar in overseas markets. On Monday, buy orders concentrated on stocks of export-oriented companies, including automobile and electronic manufacturers. Eighty-four percent of stocks listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange's First Section rose on the day.
Meanwhile, the dollar was quoted at ¥105.36-37 at 5 p.m. on Monday.
The Nikkei average accelerated its upward pace after the Bank of Japan decided to implement large-scale monetary easing in April, and approached 16,000 in May. However, the key index sharply fell to this year's low of 10,486 in June after the U.S. Federal Reserve Board implied that it might scale down its quantitative monetary easing policy.
The Nikkei average returned to its upward trend after the yen weakened against the dollar as it became clear last month that the U.S. economy is recovering. On Wednesday, it finished above 16,000 for the first time in about six years. On Friday, the yen temporarily fell to the ¥105 level for the first time in five years and two months.
This year saw many outstanding records on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The Nikkei average surged 52 percent from the first trading day of this year, while the number of companies that had their stocks newly listed on the market recovered to the highest level in seven years.
The aggregate market price of stocks listed on the TSE's First Section as of the end of last month was ¥450 trillion, about 1.5 times the level at the end of last year. This is the highest year-end level since 2007, when it marked ¥472 trillion.
Foreign investors, who have high expectations for Abenomics, pushed up the Tokyo Stock Exchange. They made net purchases of stocks totaling more than ¥14 trillion this year, far exceeding the previous record of ¥9.7 trillion in 2005.
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